Andreatta: Remove the 'I Love NY' signs already

A USA TODAY Network review of 3,000 pages of contracting documents shows the state paid extra and used emergency contracts to get the tourism-related highway signs up by July 4.
Jon Campbell / Albany Bureau

Jon Campbell / Albany Bureau The state and federal government have been feuding over 514 of these I Love NY highway signs, including this one in Schenectady.(Photo: Jon Campbell / Albany Bureau)

Unless Gov. Andrew Cuomo can worm his way out of a hole he dug for himself over hundreds of “I Love NY” signs lining New York highways, the state will lose $14 million in funding from the Federal Highway Administration at the end of the month.

Cuomo, who is 60, was a teenager when Love Story permanently warped his generation’s idea of love with its sappy slogan, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

The governor appears to be holding fast to that catchphrase in the case of his beloved blue signs, because instead of apologizing to the feds and removing the signs, as his administration had promised, he now has his aides trying to cut a deal.

Recall that the feds told the state that the signs weren’t allowed before the first one even went up more than two years ago. But, like a recalcitrant teenager, the state plowed ahead anyway, planting 514 signs that run in a familiar pattern.

A large “motherboard” sign containing four logos of the state’s tourism programs —attractions, history, food and drink, and recreation — under the heading “The New York State Experience” first greets motorists, followed by four smaller signs in quick succession, each bearing one of the logos.

Few of the signs point motorists to an actual attraction or park or winery or historically significant site. The logos are meant to serve as a legend when motorists spot them on signs near highway exits, like some sort of treasure hunt.

The state Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority have dotted New York highways with these "I Love NY" tourism signs, which are generally in groups of five.(Photo: Jon Campbell / Albany Bureau)

The Federal Highway Administration has called the signs all but useless, contending they’re unnecessary distractions and void of information motorists can use.

As punishment, the administration threatened to cut off $14 million in highway funding by Sept. 30 unless the signs were removed. And if they’re not gone by then, the feds could choose to withhold more funding in the future.

Cuomo’s aides have proposed a deal that would have them remove 392 of the smaller signs, keep the 122 motherboard signs and erase references on them to the iloveny.com website and the “I Love NY” app, the only two pieces of information that arguably clued motorists in to what they were supposed to do upon seeing the logos.

If the signs were all but useless before, which they basically were, those left standing will be beyond useless if the feds accept this compromise. They’ll be sub-useless!

The only purposes they’ll serve is to remind all New York motorists how Cuomo screwed up, and all out-of-state motorists who aren’t familiar with the debacle that New York has food and parks and attractions and history … somewhere.

Tourism-oriented directional signage, as the concept is known, is useful when the signage spells out specifically what can be found off a certain highway exit. But the “I Love NY” signs never did that in the first place.

What’s the point of keeping 122 of them that will contain less of the already nebulous information than they do today? Saving face appears to be the only reason the Cuomo administration is fighting the federal government’s directive to remove the signs.

The state spent $8.1 million on them — an average of $15,000 per sign for materials and installation costs — not to mention an untold amount in attempting to justify the signs to the feds who cautioned Cuomo against them years ago.

Now the USA TODAY Network’s Albany Bureau, which has led the coverage on this fiasco, reports the state is wrangling over its use of the italics to emphasize the word “Experience” in “The New York State Experience” on the motherboards it wants to keep.